This invention relates to a caller identification method which is for use in a telephone system including a plurality of telephone apparatuses connected to a telephone network and communicable with one another and which enables a receiving-side telephone apparatus to identify a transmitting-side telephone apparatus as a caller upon reception of a call. This invention also relates to a telephone system with a caller identification function using the above-mentioned method.
In recent years, various types of telephone systems are increasingly wide spread because they are conveniently used. In particular, use of a mobile telephone system is growing into market saturation. In the market of a telephone apparatus, it is predicted that, in response to users"" demands, each telephone system will be improved further by differentiation from other telephone systems, exhibition of uniqueness, or establishment of a function as a communication tool which is easefully and securely used.
As one of techniques already commercialized, there is known a telephone system with a caller identification function (hereinafter abbreviated to caller identification function) in which a receiving-side telephone apparatus produces and plays a ring tone melody upon call reception if a transmitting-side telephone apparatus as a caller is identified. Such caller identification function is implemented as follows. The receiving-side telephone apparatus has a nonvolatile memory in which a plurality of ring tone melodies are preliminarily stored in correspondence to telephone numbers, abbreviation numbers thereof, or the like as unique or distinctive information of users of transmitting-side telephone apparatuses as expected callers. Upon reception of a call from a particular caller, one of the melodies is sounded and played in correspondence to a particular one of the telephone numbers or the abbreviation numbers which is assigned to the particular caller. From the uniqueness of the melody, a user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus can identify the particular caller as a user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus.
Furthermore, as a recent tendency or trend in the telephone system in response to the users"" demands, the data capacity to be transmitted and received will considerably be increased. Following such trend, it is expected that image data are handled by both of the transmitting-side and the receiving-side telephone apparatuses. Specifically, the telephone apparatus will be provided with a miniaturized camera and an image codec to be used as a digital camera or a video camera, as a so-called television telephone for exchanging image data in real time with another telephone apparatus having the similar function, and so on. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H03-162087 (JP 3-162087 A) discloses a digital television telephone system in which image data taken into a receiving-side telephone apparatus by the use of the above-mentioned means are related to telephone numbers or abbreviation numbers thereof assigned to transmission-side telephone apparatuses as expected callers. Upon reception of a call from a particular caller, a particular one of the image data is selected to display an image in correspondence to a particular one of the telephone numbers or the abbreviation numbers which is assigned to the particular caller. Thus, a user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus can identify the particular caller as a user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus.
As another known technique related to the telephone system with a caller identification function, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-190843 (JP 10-190843 A) discloses a caller display system and an exchange therefor. In this system, the exchange or a telephone line control center is provided with a subscriber database. The subscriber database additionally contains various kinds of data indicative of permission or refusal to display caller information, presence or absence of an information display request key, the types of displayable characters, and so on with respect to each individual subscriber (telephone number) so that the updating operation of the subscriber database is simplified and the caller information can be displayed in various manners. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-32105 (JP 11-32105 A) discloses a mobile data terminal and a call announcing method therefor. The technique disclosed in this publication aims to provide high-value added call announcement in order to solve the problem that call announcement in the mobile data terminal is common or indistinctive and, therefore, can not easily be discriminated from call announcement in other mobile data terminals. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-78271 (JP 2001-78271 A) discloses a caller information providing device and a caller information transmitting method in a mobile communication network. In the technique disclosed in this publication, a caller can transmit image information of the caller when a telephone call is transmitted from the caller through the mobile communication network to a mobile terminal as a specific receiver.
Referring to FIG. 1, description will be made of a related telephone system with a call identifying function.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a receiving-side telephone apparatus 3 with a caller identification function receives a call from a transmitting-side telephone apparatus (not shown) through a telephone network 10 including an ISDN network 10a, a mobile telephone network 10b, and a PHS network 10c. The receiving-side telephone apparatus 3 comprises a receiving portion 31 for receiving communication information including a telephone number (i.e., a caller number) of a user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus upon call reception, a caller number detecting portion 32 supplied with the communication information received by the receiving portion 31 for detecting, as a detected caller number, the telephone number assigned to the user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus, a telephone directory 33 which includes a text memory 33a, an image memory 33b, and a ring tone memory 33c preliminarily storing various kinds of caller-identifiable unique information corresponding to each of a plurality of caller numbers and which reads the unique information from those memories in correspondence to the detected caller number and outputs the unique information, a character output portion 34 supplied with character data from the text memory 33a as one of the unique information delivered from the telephone directory 33 for producing a character expression or output, an image decoder portion 35 for decoding image data from the image memory 33b to produce decoded image data, an image output portion 36 supplied with the decoded image data for producing an image expression or output, a music decoder portion 37 for decoding music data from the ring tone memory 33c to produce decoded music data, and a music output portion 38 supplied with the decoded music data for producing a sound expression or output.
In case where the above-mentioned receiving-side telephone apparatus 3 with a caller identification function receives a call from the transmitting-side telephone apparatus, the following operations will be carried out. The character data indicative of text information such as a caller""s name are read from the text memory 33a so that a text comprising a set of characters is displayed by the character output portion 34. The image data are read from the image memory 33b and decoded by the image decoder portion 35 so that an image is displayed by the image output portion 36. The music data are read from the ring tone memory 33c and decoded by the music decoder portion 37 so that a ring tone melody is played by the music output portion 38.
Thus, upon call reception from the transmitting-side telephone apparatus, the receiving-side telephone apparatus 3 with a caller identification function displays the characters and the image based on the character data and the image data related to the caller number or generates the ring tone melody based on the music data similarly related to the caller number. In this manner, a user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus 3 responds to the call and starts communication after visually or audibly recognizing the caller.
However, the above-mentioned telephone system with a caller identification function (the receiving-side telephone apparatus with a caller identification function) is disadvantageous in the following respects. In order to obtain the caller identification function, the user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus must preliminarily carry out a telephone directory registering operation of obtaining various kinds of unique information indicative of caller identification information, such as a telephone number, a user""s name, a ring tone melody based on music data, and image data for each of a plurality of users of transmitting-side telephone apparatuses as expected callers, and registering these information in relation to one another. Such telephone directory registering operation is troublesome and time-consuming. For example, it is very troublesome for the user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus to manually input the user""s name in correspondence to each of the telephone numbers of the expected callers and to register the ring tone melody and the image data in relation thereto. Furthermore, in case where an unknown caller is calling for the first time, such caller can not be identified. In addition, the number of the ring tone melodies or the image data which can be registered or designated is limited because the memory capacity of the memories is physically restricted. Such limitation is remarkable in case of a mobile telephone because it is difficult to contain a large-capacity memory. Thus, it is impossible to register the caller identification information in correspondence to a large number of the telephone numbers desired by the user.
By the use of the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-190843, it is possible to reduce the time and the labor required for the user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus to preliminarily register various kinds of unique information indicative of the caller identification information for each of the users of the transmitting-side telephone apparatuses as the expected callers in relation to one another. Thus, irrespective of the memory capacity of the memories mounted to the receiving-side telephone apparatus, a large number of callers can be identified. In this case, however, it is necessary to make the subscriber database on the side of the telephone network hold and memorize the caller identification information. Therefore, the degree of freedom in functional selection is decreased. For example, it is difficult that the user himself operates the telephone apparatus to set and register a desired combination of various kinds of unique information for each caller and to change the setting. Thus, the optionality and the convenience are degraded.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a caller identification method for a telephone system, which is capable of easily, efficiently, and properly identifying a caller and producing a caller identifiable expression irrespective of physical limitation of a memory capacity, without requiring a preliminary telephone directory registering operation of registering various kinds of caller identification information in relation to one another and without degrading the optionality and the convenience.
It is another object of this invention to provide a telephone system with a caller identification function using the above-mentioned method.
According to an aspect of this invention, there is provided a caller identification method for use in a telephone system in which communication is possible between a transmitting-side telephone apparatus and a receiving-side telephone apparatus through a telephone network after a call origination operation and a call receiving operation are carried out in the transmitting-side telephone apparatus and the receiving-side telephone apparatus, respectively, the method enabling the receiving-side telephone apparatus to identify the transmitting-side telephone apparatus as a caller, the transmitting-side telephone apparatus having a memory which stores unique information as caller identification information, the transmitting-side telephone apparatus transmitting, upon origination of a call, the caller identification information following communication control information for connection of communication through the telephone network to the receiving-side telephone apparatus, the receiving-side telephone apparatus receiving the caller identification information upon reception of the call and identifying the caller on the basis of the caller identification information, wherein:
the transmitting-side telephone apparatus multiplexes a plurality of different kinds of unique information including at least character data, image data, and music data to produce multiplexed multimedia data;
the transmitting-side telephone apparatus storing the multiplexed multimedia data in the memory as the caller identification information;
the transmitting-side telephone apparatus transmitting, upon origination of the call, the multiplexed multimedia data as the caller identification information following the communication control information from the memory to the receiving-side telephone apparatus through the telephone network;
the receiving-side telephone apparatus receiving the multiplexed multimedia data as the caller identification information upon reception of the call;
the receiving-side telephone apparatus demultiplexing the multiplexed multimedia data into the character data, the image data, and the music data;
the receiving-side telephone apparatus identifying the caller on the basis of the character data, the image data, and the music data.
According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided a telephone system in which communication is possible between a transmitting-side telephone apparatus and a receiving-side telephone apparatus through a telephone network after a call origination operation and a call receiving operation are carried out in the transmitting-side telephone apparatus and the receiving-side telephone apparatus, respectively, the system enabling the receiving-side telephone apparatus to identify the transmitting-side telephone apparatus as a caller, the transmitting-side telephone apparatus including a memory which stores unique information as caller identification information, the transmitting-side telephone apparatus transmitting, upon origination of a call, the caller identification information following communication control information for connection of communication through the telephone network to the receiving-side telephone apparatus, the receiving-side telephone apparatus receiving the caller identification information upon reception of the call and identifying the caller on the basis of the caller identification information, wherein the transmitting-side telephone apparatus comprises:
a multiplexing portion for multiplexing a plurality of different kinds of unique information including at least character data, image data, and music data to produce multiplexed multimedia data, the multiplexing portion storing the multiplexed multimedia data in the memory as the caller identification information; and
a transmitting portion for transmitting, upon origination of the call, the multiplexed multimedia data as the caller identification information following the communication control information from the memory to the receiving-side telephone apparatus through the telephone network;
the receiving-side telephone apparatus comprising:
a receiving portion for receiving the multiplexed multimedia data as the caller identification information upon reception of the call; and
a demultiplexing portion for demultiplexing the multiplexed multimedia data into the character data, the image data, and the music data;
the receiving-side telephone apparatus identifying the caller on the basis of the character data, the image data, and the music data.
According to still another aspect of this invention, there is provided a transmitting-side telephone apparatus comprising:
a memory which stores unique information as caller identification information;
a multiplexing portion for multiplexing a plurality of different kinds of unique information including at least character data, image data, and music data to produce multiplexed multimedia data, the multiplexing portion storing the multiplexed multimedia data in the memory as the caller identification information; and
a transmitting portion for transmitting, upon origination of a call, the multiplexed multimedia data as the caller identification information from the memory to a receiving-side telephone apparatus through a telephone network.
According to yet another aspect of this invention, there is provided a receiving-side telephone apparatus for use in combination with a transmitting-side telephone apparatus comprising: a memory which stores unique information as caller identification information; a multiplexing portion for multiplexing a plurality of different kinds of unique information including at least character data, image data, and music data to produce multiplexed multimedia data, the multiplexing portion storing the multiplexed multimedia data in the memory as the caller identification information; and a transmitting portion for transmitting, upon origination of a call, the multiplexed multimedia data as the caller identification information from the memory to the receiving-side telephone apparatus through a telephone network; the receiving-side telephone apparatus comprising:
a receiving portion for receiving the multiplexed multimedia data as the caller identification information upon reception of the call; and
a demultiplexing portion for demultiplexing the multiplexed multimedia data into the character data, the image data, and the music data;
the receiving-side telephone apparatus identifying the caller on the basis of the character data, the image data, and the music data.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-32115 (JP 11-32115 A) discloses that a caller terminal sends, to a receiver terminal, caller information of image data of a still image or a time-varying image and voice data which are previously stored. However, the above-mentioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-32115 (JP 11-32115 A) never discloses that the transmitting-side telephone apparatus has a multiplexing portion for multiplexing a plurality of different kinds of unique information including at least character data, image data, and music data to produce multiplexed multimedia data, the multiplexing portion storing the multiplexed multimedia data in the memory as the caller identification information and that the transmitting-side telephone apparatus transmits, upon origination of the call, the multiplexed multimedia data from the memory to the receiving-side telephone apparatus. Furthermore, the above-mentioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-32115 (JP 11-32115 A) also never discloses that the receiving-side telephone apparatus has a demultiplexing portion for demultiplexing the multiplexed multimedia data into the character data, the image data, and the music data.